436 EEPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



no better condition when first discovered by the Spaniards, nearly tbree 

 hundred and forty years ago, than they are now, and how much older 

 these perfect buildings were then than the rude piles of adobe and 

 uncut stone found by the first conquerors, the past can only tell, and 

 that is dead and buried. The material, a grayish-yellow sandstone, 

 breaking readily into thin laminae, was quarried from the adjacent ex- 

 posures of that rock. In the ruin it has weathered to a warm brown, 

 so that at a distance it looks almost black. The stones employed aver- 

 age about the size of an ordinary brick, but as the larger pieces were 

 irregular in size, the interstices were filled in with very thin plates of 

 sandstone, or rather built in during its construction, for by no other 

 means could they be placed with such regularity and compactness. So 

 closely are the individual pieces fitted to each other that at a little dis- 

 tance no jointage appears, and the wall bears every indication of being a 

 plain solid surface. A clay mortar was used plentifully within the body 

 of the wall but does not appear anywhere upon the surface. Great pains 

 were taken in the construction of the door-ways, the stones being more 

 regular in size and the corners dressed down to perfect right angles; 

 the same care was given to the openings in the lowest floor as to those 

 in the upper. In the northwest corner of the main building, back of the 

 estufas and on the second floor, a door-way has been constructed leading 

 diagonally from one room to another, which displays particularly nice 

 ■workmanship. The lintels were in nearly every case composed of small 

 round sticks of cedar or pine placed in contact, but in the smaller open- 

 ings were formed by a single slab of stone. Although there is a great 

 diversity in the size of the stones employed, still they are ranged in per- 

 fectly horizontal layers, rows of the larger stones alternating with rows 

 of smaller ones, presenting at a litrle distance a beautifully laminated 

 appearance. 



In regard to the number of inhabitants, I do not think there were more 

 than about 200. There are 51 rooms on the second floor, exclusive of 

 the estufas and outside buildings. The leaver floor was composed of a 

 larger number of rooms, and the third floor of a less number, so that in 

 the whole building there are probably about 150 apartments. Divide 

 occupants into families and each would occupy on an average four rooms, 

 and then if we allow five jDersons to each family we have 200 souls in 

 all, as estimated. 



Upon the southeastern front, just outside of the court, are two rubbish- 

 heaps, the refuse carried out and there deposited by the ancient occu- 

 pants. Throughout the mass are large numbers of fragments of painted 

 pottery and flint-chippings, but nothing of any greater interest was found 

 in the limited time at our disposal. The trail here leaves the arroyo of 

 the Chaco to avoid a considerable bend which it makes to the right. The 

 surface is slightly undulating, and in the neighborhood of the trail, both 

 above and below the Pueblo, is covered with a number of small old ruins. 

 I counted ten such within a mile of each other. They are built of stone, 

 of but one story, and varied from 30 to 50 feet in exterior dimensions. 



Two miles from the ruin we descended into the canon of the Chaco. 

 It is here only about 50 feet in depth, with vertical walls of yellowish- 

 gray sandstone. The dry bed of the arroyo meandering along the bot- 

 tom, almost entirely cuts off communication from one side of the canon 

 with the other. IS^umerous small cottonwoods attest that there is moist- 

 ure somewhere in the neighborhood. A two hours' ride brought us to a 

 few water-pockets or reservoirs in the bottom of the arroyo, in which 

 was a plentiful supply of thick, pasty water. Some families of NavajoSj 

 with their sheep and goats, were camped near by. 



